Yesterday evening (16 Mar) from 7:50 - 8:20 there were approximately 6,000 waterfowl in the southern portion of Delaware Wildlife Area (Delaware County). At 7:00 the marsh visible from Leonardsburg and Panhandle roads held ~1000 ducks. At dusk, ducks started congregating in the marsh from all directions. By 8:00 the marsh was practically one continuous raft of ducks.  As the light faded a majority of these ducks flew over to Delaware Reservoir to spend the night.  Because of the failing light and lack of a scope I was unable to get species counts. However, Scaup and Ring-necked Ducks were the most abundant.  All of the expected species were present, except Canvasback, Common Goldeneye, and Common Merganser.

6,000 waterfowl is a conservative count, as there were many ducks tucked out of sight in corners and coves. It will be interesting to see how many moved on after a sunny day with south winds.

Jack Stenger
Ohio Wesleyan university
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